The Orion Nebula, the Flame, and the Horsehead dark nebula, framed with the Belt of Orion (the three aligned stars on the right), in a telephoto image. The image is achieved by a single exposure. Normally, this kind of images are result of photo montages but thanks to the pristine conditions at Paranal and the advanced camera technology, we are closer to the stars than ever! In the foreground is one of the telescopes on the Cerro Paranal Observatory in the Atacama Desert, Chile. With its dark and transparent sky, Paranal is home to the Very Large Telescope (VLT), operated by the European Southern Observatory (ESO). It is composed of four 8-metre telescopes and smaller auxiliary telescopes, each 1.8 metres in aperture (pictured here) which are important elements of the VLT interferometer.